1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and method for performing a service connection in a Wi-Fi Direct network, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for determining a group owner in a service connection in a Wi-Fi Direct network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wi-Fi Direct is a communication technique which allows devices to directly connect each other for data exchange without an Access Point (AP) beyond a conventional wireless LAN technique in which networking is made based on an AP. Herein, “Wi-Fi Direct” refers to devices and/or communications compatible with the WI-FI DIRECT™ communications protocols.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a Wi-Fi Direct network between devices.
Referring to FIG. 1, a basic Wi-Fi Direct connection scheme performs a one-to-one connection between devices 110 and 120, thus forming a Wi-Fi Direct network 100. For example, the pair of devices 110 and 120 may be, for example, two smart phones, a notebook and a mouse, and a tablet Personal Computer (PC) and a printer, etc. directly connected to each other through Wi-Fi Direct, thus establishing an Internet connection or forming a network. In addition, a device may form a network with one or more devices in the vicinity of the device, such as a digital camera, an Motion Picture Experts' Group Audio Layer 3 (MP3) player, a game console, a TV, etc. Consequently, various forms of communications and transfers are enabled. For example, a picture, a music file, or a moving image contained in a smart phone may be easily transmitted to another smart phone, a document and a picture stored in a tablet PC may be directly printed, contact information of a PC and contact information of a smart phone may be synchronized with each other, and game consoles may be directly connected to be used for playing a game.
Based on the Wi-Fi Direct scheme, devices may be connected according to the following process. Referring to FIG. 1, a first device 110 searches for a device supporting Wi-Fi Direct in the vicinity thereof and finds a second device 120. The first device 110 determines whether the second device 120 supports a service desired by the first device 110, thus checking connection intention. If a desired service and a provided service are matched, the first device 110 determines connection intention with the second device 120 and negotiates with the second device 120 regarding which one of the first device 110 and the second device 120 is to serve as an owner (or a soft Access Point (AP)). The two devices 110 and 120 exchange their intent values to determine whether to serve as an owner. The two devices 110 and 120 determine which one of the devices 110 and 120 is to serve as an owner through the foregoing procedure, and then the determined device starts operating as the owner and functioning as the soft AP.
As such, since the Wi-Fi Direct scheme is a direct connection scheme in which one of devices serves as a soft AP without a separate physical AP, one of two or more devices forming a Wi-Fi Direct network group must operate as a group owner that has control over other devices and serves as a soft AP.
As described above, among devices that form a Wi-Fi Direct network to execute a service, a device is designated as a group owner. If a device is a mobile communication terminal, for Wi-Fi Direct connection between the mobile communication terminal and another terminal of the same type, it does not matter which one of the two mobile communication terminals is designated as a group owner and there is no difference in performance.
However, as shown in FIG. 1, the first device 110, which is a mobile communication terminal, may be connected with the second device 120, which is a computer. In other words, the mobile communication terminal may have to be connected with a high-performance device that has superior performance over the mobile communication terminal and is constantly provided with power. In this case, it is preferable that the second device 120 that is the high-performance device operates as a group owner and the first device 110 executes a general client function.
Although one of devices operates as a group owner while establishing the Wi-Fi Direct connection, there currently is no way to designate a group owner, such that designation of a device suitable for a particular situation or condition, such as a service type, among the devices is guaranteed. As such, in execution of a Wi-Fi Direct connection procedure, a group owner cannot be designated according to a type of a service to be connected, resulting in inefficient group management.